Plant and Seed Shop

Chili Pepper Seeds and Plants for Sale(or Chilli, Chile, Chilie)

Cost - you won't want to pay Â£1+
for a supermarket bag of 3-4 again once you realise how
easy it is to grow them.

Flavour
- as with any home-grown produce, they will be better
than anything you get from the supermarket.

Satisfaction - the tangible joy
of cutting a chili or two from your own plant immediately
before adding it to your food instead of taking it from
the packet in the fridge. You don't need many plants to
be self-sufficient all year round, the first year I grew
chilies I had them in the freezer until May the following
year, just a couple of months before the next crop were
ready, and I get through quite a lot!

Sowing - use new
seed compost (it makes a big difference, don't use
multi-purpose compost) ideally in a propagator at 18-21C (65-70F),
but in a warm position otherwise. They should be sown fairly
early in the season
in
March, though February isn't too early as long as you
are able to accommodate them once growing and keep them sheltered.
They take quite a while to mature and start fruiting, it will
happen if you sow them later but the productive season will
be shorter. Cover the seeds very lightly (their own depth) with
compost or vermiculite and provide light as this helps germination.

Cover the pot or seed tray with cling film to keep the compost
moist, the compost itself doesn't need to be very deep, 1" (2.5cm)
max is fine as long as you prick them out fairly soon after
germination which will take 7-21 days.

1st transplantation - Prick out the
seedlings when they are big enough for you to handle into individual
3" (7.5cm) pots. Keep them in a bright frost-free place, a greenhouse
or conservatory is ideal, early in the year excess heat will
make them grow weak and spindly without the light to bring them
on, so not a warm room.

Final positions - Give them enough
space so they get lots of light and make sure the leaves of
adjacent plants don't over-lap. When they have filled the small
pot (check under the pot for signs of emerging roots) they can
be put into larger pots I use 2L or preferably 3L, though you
can put three into a grow-bag. A thin cane for support helps
here, tie the plant loosely to the cane.

Chili plants like sheltered conditions more
than they need loads of sunlight, sheltered and bright
is better than not-sheltered and sunny. Of course sheltered
and sunny is even better (though watch for overheating and scorching,
especially when you first put them out).
A sunny windowsill will suffice if it's all you've got and you'll
get a reasonable crop of chillis from this position, though
as the light only comes from one direction, it won't be as good
as somewhere that the light comes from all directions.

You may be able to grow them outdoors depending on where
you live, if you do, then put them in the most sheltered bright
spot you have. I've had them grow tall with loads of foliage
outdoors (in Cambridgeshire) but hardly set any fruit, whereas
under shelter with less light they don't grow as large but have
lots of peppers. More recently I have grown them outdoors up
against the house which they liked a lot.

Feed
them like you would tomato plants when they start to set fruit
with a high potash fertiliser.

They will start to fruit from mid-summer
onwards and well into the autumn. Like sweet peppers
there aren't really green and coloured varieties, the green ones are
just unripe coloured ones.

Storage
- I like to leave the peppers on the plants until I need
them and cut them for use, though even if you are moderately
successful you will have more than you can use immediately.
They can be left on the plants for a long time, I finally cut
all mine off last year just before Christmas, they will start
to shrivel and dry out eventually. On the other hand, cutting
them when green or when just ripened will encourage the plant
to make more chilies while leaving them on the plant slows production
down.

You could dry them but I find that
freezing works better. Put them into
a sealable plastic container and just take out what you need,
they thaw quickly and are easier to cut than when dried.

Drying is the traditional way of
storing chilies and you will see many recipes (especially Mexican)
that call specifically for dried chilies. I suspect the reason
is of convenience rather than anything else. In a hot climate
without refrigeration it works well and there really is no alternative.
You can try drying easily enough, make sure the peppers are
kept whole with a bit of stalk attached so that all the oils
and flavours don't escape. Let them dry slowly and naturally
on a sunny windowsill, don't chop them before storing them.
Store them in an air tight jar or similar and ideally use within
6 or 12 months. Cut them up as needed from dry or soak them
in water for 30 mins or so before using them.

Overwintering the plants - Though they
are often grown as half hardy annuals, chili plants are actually
perennials and so can be overwintered successfully to grow again
next season. They are very sensitive not only to frost, but
also to cold temperatures. Keep your best flavoured and most
productive plants at or above 7-8C ideally (5C might be ok,
but be prepared to learn as you go!) a bright windowsill in
a cool room if you don't have a frost-free greenhouse will do
nicely. Keep them fairly dry but don't let them wilt and start
to water them more when they start to show new growth which
will start in late winter / early spring. Too much warmth with
weak winter light will make them grow weak and leggy.

I'm not claiming
to be a cookery expert here, but I do have a life-long love
of chilies and have consumed an awful lot over the last few
decades, frequently on a daily basis. I find the
best way to use them is fresh off the plant, next is out of
the freezer and then coming up last is the array of sauces.
Sauces however are very convenient and can be given away
as gifts to chili-loving friends and family. I don't use dried
chilies myself.

WholeTake
care when chopping chilies, the scotch bonnets and habaneros
I grow are often significantly hotter than any I've bought in
a supermarket, if this is what you are used to, then go carefully
at first until you know what you have. Don't touch your face
with your hands after chopping them and be aware that the heat
can stay on your fingers even after you've rinsed them under
the tap.

You could wear disposable gloves for this, I
tend to go slowly and use another small knife and a fork so
that I don't touch the chili any more than necessary, put the
knife between the prongs of the fork when you've finished to
wipe the pieces of chili stuck to it off and wash the chopping
board before you forget about it. Touching the outside of the
intact pepper is usually fine, but once cut, the heat is released
from the oils.

The hottest part is the placenta, the
white or pale part inside the pepper that the seeds are attached
to, the second hottest part are the seeds themselves. If you
want the flavour of the pepper without all of the heat, you
could discard these parts, though I suggest you keep them to
one side so that you can add them later in case you want more
heat after all.

Cooking doesn't affect the heat of chilies,
though it does help to spread the heat through the food and
avoid biting on an uncomfortably hot piece.
Add chilies right at the start of the cooking process so their
flavour and heat can dissipate through the dish and avoid
hot-spots. Chili con carne is always best prepared the day before
then cooled and kept in the fridge
over-night (add 3-4 pieces of dark chocolate to the pan at
the end of cooking for extra depth and flavour) .

If you do over-do it, drinking water won't
help, though dairy does, drink milk or have something like an
Indian raita or Mexican sour cream along with your chili containing
dish, plain yogurt is also good too, these add an extra degree
of creaminess that enhances the meal.

There are a million and one chili sauces available
many with humorous and silly names and a it seems a bit of a
cult for some that claim to cause actual pain on the way in
or out where you need only the tiniest amount to make a dish
almost indelibly powerful. I have yet to understand the point
of these.

I use my chilies to make a a sweet sauce which
can also be used for dipping and another hotter sauce
that I use to add to things like cheese on toast, stir fry etc.
where chili heat and flavour is needed without too much taste
from other ingredients.

These two recipes are simple
enough to make and work for me and the people I've given the
sauces to. The most readily changeable ingredient is the
amount of chili and type of chili. I suggest you make a
small amount to start with and write down what you add so
you know next time. It's not that difficult to make sauces
that will be declared at least the equivalent of those you
can buy. If you really want to impress you could even make
your own labels.

Sweet sauce / chili jam - this is Lorraine
Pascal's recipe from her tv programme it worked well for me
and there's lots of commentary on the web about how easy and
successful it is for others.

450gms tomatoes

2 chilies (minimum - more if you like it warmer)

2 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger

60ml balsamic vinegar

250gm granulated sugar

Blitz everything in a food processor then boil 25-30mins until
the consistency is right, it may take longer. I use a blender
I can use in the pan rather than a food processor, so let everything
soften up a bit first in the pan and then blitz it. TIP -
make a clingfilm tent over the pan with the blender in the
middle to stop splashing and what can be quite an
overwhelming smell of chilies.

I
use home-grown tomatoes when they are available so it can also
be a very cheap recipe too, passata is good and makes a more
even smooth sauce. If the sauce
separates out in the jar somewhat, it won't harm it, just
give it a shake before use.

Hot
chili sauce

3-6 oz (170 g) fresh chili peppers (I used less as mine
were very hot)

6 oz (170 g) onion

4 oz (112 g) cooking apple

2 teaspoons of mustard powder

1 teaspoon salt

a quarter of a pint (145 ml) of rice wine vinegar

Chop the onion fairly finely, peel and chop the apple, add
everything to a pan until it boils, blend together in the pan
at this point and leave to simmer until it gets to the right
consistency (20-40 mins) remember it will be thicker when cold
than when hot.

I avoided chopping the pile of very hot chilies by just adding
them to the pan and letting the blender do its job (watch for
splashes!). I used rice wine vinegar as it's what was in the
cupboard, large relatively inexpensive bottles are available
in many supermarkets "ethnic" foods aisle, otherwise white malt
vinegar could be used.

Varying the recipe - the apple in this basic recipe adds
texture rather than flavour, I've also used mango pulp (from
a can) and tamarind in the place of the apple, both of which
worked really well.

BottlingYou can use almost any small
glass bottles/jars that previously had sauces, jam etc. in,
anything in the 200-400ml range is good as long as it still
has a good airtight lid and is sterilizeable. Add the very hot
sauce straight off the cooker into the hot sterile jars (a small
funnel is invaluable here), seal and leave to cool. Use as soon
as you can, keeping the jar in the fridge once opened. I've
no idea how long it lasts other than at least 3 months which
is as long as any has lasted so far before being eaten.

Capsaicin

Capsaicin is the chemical in chilies that
makes them hotChilies belong to the genus Capsicum
which gives the chemical its name.

Like
lots of plant chemicals that we find tasty, it is actually produced
as a deterrent against organisms that may eat the plant, particularly
fungi and insects.

Birds can't taste capsaicinBirds spread the seeds of chilies, they pass through
their digestive system intact and therefore viable, mammals
often have teeth that crush and so destroy the seeds, so it
makes sense for the plant to be palatable to animals that will
aid its spread. Capsicum seeds are predominantly spread by birds.